Expanded Markets Will Accelerate Clean Energy Use and Bring Billions in Economic Benefits

Washington, D.C. (December 7, 2022) — The Clean Energy Buyers Association today praised the release of the draft final proposal by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) for the CAISO and Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) boards to move forward with providing day-ahead energy market services to EIM participants.

The CAISO final proposal for the extended day-ahead market (EDAM) offers one Western market option and comes after Southwest Power Pool (SPP) in late November released its Markets+ proposal for a Western day-ahead market and related services.

“Well designed day-ahead market services for Western energy markets would help expand the cost-effective dispatch of diverse and large amounts of clean energy resources across utility and state borders and bring billions of dollars in cost savings for energy customers,” said Heidi Ratz, CEBA’s senior manager of market and policy innovation. “We are pleased that this CAISO final proposal is moving forward with other options for day-ahead energy markets that would all help maximize transmission and integrate more cost-effective clean energy resources onto the grid, and we look forward to further work to expand regional energy markets and transmission efficiency.”

The CAISO extended day-ahead market would improve market efficiency by integrating renewable resources using day-ahead unit commitment and scheduling across a larger area. The CAISO EDAM process began in October 2019, and the final proposal released today is the result of many hours of stakeholder engagement to ensure the proposal addressed critical issues including transmission availability and pricing, resource sufficiency needs and criteria, pricing of resources, and market governance.

The CAISO and Western Energy Imbalance Market boards will meet Dec. 14 to review the final EDAM proposal and will issue a final decision in February. CAISO aims to begin the voluntary day-ahead market in 2024.

According to a November study conducted for CAISO by Energy Strategies, a Western day-ahead market could save the region up to $1.2 billion a year from operational and capacity efficiencies while increasing renewable energy output by more than 1,800 gigawatt hours. A 2021 Western state-led study released by the U.S. Department of Energy found that a full West-wide RTO would increase annual benefits up to $2 billion. The SPP Markets+ proposal also is anticipated to bring economic benefits; a 2020 Brattle Group study found that a SPP Western RTO would create benefits of $25 million per year for Western Energy Imbalance Service members and $24.2 million annually for SPP members.

###

The Clean Energy Buyers Association is a business trade association that activates a community of energy customers and partners to deploy market and policy solutions for a carbon-free energy system. CEBA’s more than 330 members represent more than $7 trillion in annual revenues and 14 million employees and include institutional energy customers of every type and size – corporate and industrial companies, universities, and cities. For more information, visit cebuyers.org and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.